In the northern ocean there is a fish, called the Leviathan, many thousand li in size. This leviathan changes into a bird, called the Rukh, whose back is many thousand li in breadth. With a mighty effort it rises, and its wings obscure the sky like clouds. At the equinox, this bird prepares to start for the southern ocean, the Celestial Lake. And in the Record of Marvels we read that when the rukh flies southwards, the water is smitten for a space of three thousand li around, while the bird itself mounts upon a typhoon to a height of ninety thousand li, for a flight of six months' duration. Just so are the motes in a sunbeam blown aloft by God. For whether the blue of the sky is its real colour, or only the result of distance without end, the effect to the bird looking down would be just the same as to the motes. If there is not sufficient depth, water will not float large ships. Upset a cupful into a small hole, and a mustard-seed will be your boat. Try to float the cup, and it will stick, from the disproportion between water and vessel. So with air. If there is not a sufficient depth, it cannot support large birds. And for this bird a depth of ninety thousand li is necessary; and then, with nothing save the clear sky above, and no obstacle in the way, it starts upon its journey to the south.

And in the reign of Takhmôrup, when men continually passed, on the back of the ox Sarsaok, from Khvanîras to the other regions, one night amid the sea...

On the nature of seas it says in revelation, that the wide-formed ocean keeps one-third of this earth on the south side of the border of Albûrz, and...

Would that it were possible for thee to get thee wings, and soar into the air, and, poised midway 'tween earth and heaven, behold the earth's...

He learned birds' language from "what we were taught." But thou art only a bird of the air; understand then That thou hast never seen the true...

Gravitation, which is a law in the material world, is the impulse toward the center of materiality; levitation, which is a law in the spiritual...

My Master yet had uttered not a word While the first whiteness into wings unfolded; But when he clearly recognised the pilot, He cried: "Make haste,...